butyl tape

[Sailtime]

hi - does this look like the butyl mastic tape that others have used to attach deck fittings?

Cheers
Shea

tape.jpg (40.92 KiB) Viewed 1676 times

[Sailtime]

Screen Shot 2016-07-20 at 7.25.51 pm.jpg (32.71 KiB) Viewed 1674 times

[Troppo]

Hi Shea, I did a reply a few minutes ago but it has not posted up????

What I said was, it looks like the one I got from the USA that is made for boating but many of them look the same but are different. I sealed most of my deck fittings with an Australian one, it was white and designed for sticking dam liners together. It had a fine mesh in it which was great when doing a flat surface but not good for wrapping around screws like they show to do with boat fittings. However, it worked very well.

In my opinion, you may like to try the one you are thinking of and see how it goes. The key thing is that butyl mastic never sets, it remains flexible and sticky. That's what is good about it. Any movement of the fitting and the seal does not break, it just reseals.

When you use the butyl mastic and tighten down the fitting, they suggest not to over tighten it but come back in a week or whatever and tighten. I found that over that time the mastic creeps slightly so can be tightened again. Amazing stuff.

Louis

[lockie]

I have used the stuff with no reinforcing mesh and it is great. One thing I have learned is that less is more. When I first started using it, I would make it up like a gasket that covered the entire sealing surface of the fitting. These days I just make it up sort of like an o-ring that surrounds the screw-hole and put that under the fitting, plus a smalll colaar around the countersunk screw, washer or whatever the fastener is. This works just as well, and has the advantage of not needing so much force to squeeze it all down, plus there is nothing ozzing out the edges of the fitting. You must try to keep it clear of the screw as once it gets caught in the thread, it can mess up the joint.

Mesh would interfere with my method. The trouble is seems nigh on impossible to get in Oz.

Cheers, Graeme